Docs Ireland Podcast

Eamonn McCann joins us for this screening and discussion. We screen a group discussion from 1988 he took part in, after the screening Eamonn will reflect on his experience of it looking back. After Dark was a groundbreaking reinvention of the discussion programme format: live and with no scheduled end time. Broadcast on both Channel 4 and the BBC from 1987 to 2003. Each episode featured up to eight guests, all invited as they had personal experience of the subject being debated. The aim was to present a full range of arguments by selecting guests that had divergent opinions on the subject and crossed boundaries of age, sex, religion, class, and nationality. Eamonn is interviewed by Hugh Odling-Smee

It is within the realm of what has become commonly known as ‘artist moving image’ that we continue to encounter models for documentary film practice that are for the most part utterly unlike those we have otherwise become accustomed to. This programme curated for Docs Ireland by aemi (www.aemi.ie) – an organisation dedicated to the support and exhibition of artist and experimental moving image practices – takes its focus primarily on Irish filmmakers and artists, each working outside or stretching the limits of what we traditionally recognise as documentary film. Material legacies Grace Weir, Dust Defying Gravity, 2004, 4 minutes Grace Weir, A Reflection in Light, 2015, 21 mins Renèe Helèna Browne, Daddy’s Boy, 2020, 22 mins Coleen Fitzgibbon, Trip to Carolee, 1974, 5 mins Kelly Gallagher, Pearl Pistols, 2014, 3 minutes Amanda Rice, Death in Geological Time, 2018, 4 minutes Alice Rekab, Migration Sings, 2020, 2 minute

Chronicling the extraordinary rise of one of the most colorful and controversial religious movements in American history, Hail Satan? is an inspiring and entertaining new feature documentary from acclaimed director Penny Lane (Nuts!, Our Nixon). The discussion, chaired by BBC journalist William Crawley, was with renowned academic Dr. Andrew Sneddon and author Phil Harrison.

This panel is made up of renowned American documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney (Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room, No Stone Unturned), Barry McCaffrey (Journalist, No Stone Unturned), Sean Murray (Unquiet Graves), Kathryn Johnstone (NUJ) and panel moderator Susan McKay (Writer & Journalist). Having been through arrest, questioning, hearings, bail and seizure of work related materials in recent days, documentary filmmakers Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey have been released from police bail. This decision represents a victory for the journalists and press freedom campaigners and a humiliating climbdown for police. The authorities will now face fresh pressure to find the Loughinisland murderers, the subject of the documentary at the heart of the issue in the film ‘No Stone Unturned’. Documentarian Sean Murray, worked with relatives of victims, local campaign groups and journalist Ann Cadwallader, writer of ‘Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland’ to produce the detailed and brilliant documentary ‘Unquiet Graves’. Murray’s film gives an indepth account of the workings of the ‘Glenanne Gang’ responsible for scores of murders during the Troubles, who also feature in Gibney’s ‘No Stone Unturned’.

The importance of art in social action and activism has long been demonstrated - as a tool to create visibility, encourage conversation and stimulate change. With a focus on the Marriage Equality and Abortion Rights campaigns in ROI and NI, Activists and Filmmakers involved in these campaigns discuss how recent referendum victories in the Republic (and the films created for these campaigns) have affected Northern Ireland. How best can our activist communities work together to use art and film as an agent for change? Speakers: Gillian Callan (Director, Equal), Treasa O’Brien (Director, Town of Strangers), Anna Rodgers (Director, Strong At The Broken Places). The Panel was chaired by Wuraola Majekodunmi (Broadcaster and Video-maker).

Irish civil rights leader Bernadette McAliskey, former PUP press officer Sophie Long, columnist & editor of ‘Repeal the 8th’ Una Mulally and writer, broadcaster Paul Gosling join moderator, journalist and writer Susan McKay, to consider the state of the place, in our State of the Nation panel. Northern Ireland is in the eye of the political storm; this tiny region and its irreconcilable border has both the UK and EU over a barrel in the Brexit process. What does the Irish border now mean, for the people of the north and south? What would a border along the Irish Sea mean for Unionists in NI? We look at the arguments from a historical, political, cultural and economic point of view and look to the future of the island of Ireland.

Journalist Colm Keena (Irish Times) worked on the Panama Papers, as well as controversies concerning company and personal tax avoidance and evasion. His story about payments to an incumbent Irish Taoiseach in 2006, caused a political crisis and led to landmark Supreme Court judgment in 2009 recognizing the right of journalists to protect their sources. Colm was interviewed by Belfast journalist Barry McCaffrey.

A very thought provoking and illuminating chat around the issues of Housing Rights, over all of Ireland, after the Docs Ireland screening of PUSH (dir. Fredrik Gertten), in the Mac, Belfast. The panel was chaired by Dr. Agustina Martire (Lecturer in Architecture, School of Natural and Built Environment at Queens University Belfast and vice chair of the SaveCQ campaign), with Elfie Seymore and Jenna (Participation and the Practice of Rights), Dublin TD Eoin Ó Broin, author of HOME: why public housing is the answer (Merrion Press 2019) and Ciaran Mackel, Associate Senior Lecturer in Architecture at the Ulster University and the founder of ARdMackel Architects.